The exemplary embodiments relate to communications, and more specifically, to methods and systems for delivery of voice service over a data communications network and/or a telecommunications network.
Internet telephony, also referred to herein as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), Voice over Network (VoN), Internet Protocol Telephony (IP Telephony), and others, is experiencing explosive growth and marked improvements in reliability and sound quality. The improved Internet telephony communications are, in large part, due to upgrading the internet backbone with better switching fabrics, such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and also due to implementation of new communications standards, such as standards for transport protocols, directory services, and/or audio codec format.
Along with these improvements come new challenges for the industry. For example, to support a voice communications path within a customer's premise (e.g., a customer's home or business) through a telephony communications path (e.g., DSL) with a data communications network, some combination(s) of integrated access devices (IAD), analog terminal adaptors (ATA), and/or telephone adapters (TA) must be installed at the customer's premise. For example, the customer may connect an existing analog phone (e.g., Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) phone), including a cordless telephone, to the ATA or TA to originate and receive calls over a VoN line. A VoN dial-tone is provided to all telephone extensions connected with a TA. This VoN communications connection may include various hardware and equipment, such as, for example, soft switches (SSW), trunk gateways (TGWs), application servers (AS), routing engines and policy servers, media servers (MS), and feature servers (FS), such as applications, routing engines, and policy servers.
Although the VoN service is attractive, customers typically are not willing to spend a lot of money on new equipment. Moreover, customers are not willing to accept typical data communications network (e.g., Internet) or power outages and unpredictability of these outages when it comes to VoN services.
And, problems exist for communications service providers. From an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) perspective (i.e., provider for data communications network services), ISPs would like to avoid professional installation thus minimizing their payback period and increasing their Return-On-Investment (ROI). From a local exchange carrier's perspective (i.e., telephone service provider), it is important to re-use as much of the existing communications network that they have in place today for VoN lines. This maximizes efficiency of the existing telecommunications network. And, this also minimizes training and capital expenses. For example, a maintenance procedure such as MLT (mechanized loop test) may be used to test and analyze a communications path with the customer's premise, and these types of procedures are already well known by repair personnel.
Accordingly, a need exists for methods and systems that enable a customer to enjoy the convenience and potential cost savings of a VoN system using their analog phone or other existing communications device (e.g., computer, VoIP phone, etc.) while ensuring a quality of service voice connection over the VoN. Furthermore, a need exists for methods and systems that minimize service providers' costs and leverage the assets of existing communications networks.